In America; Time Bomb in BlueBy BOB HERBERTPublished: Thursday, September 18, 1997

Laura Gentile warned a city lawyer in 1991 that Richard Molloy, a young police officer who was both hot-tempered and weird, would end up killing someone.Mr. Molloy was the officer whose gun was used one night in January 1996 to kill a drunken man named Patrick Heslin Phelan. The gun was slipped into Officer Molloy's pocket after the shooting and the medical examiner ruled that the wound to Mr. Phelan's head could not have been self-inflicted. Mr. Molloy has nevertheless insisted that Mr. Phelan committed suicide.Ms. Gentile is a lawyer who, in 1991, represented an Act Up demonstrator who sued Officer Molloy for false arrest. She described the officer's behavior during official proceedings in that case as bizarre. She said he acted so aggressively and exhibited such intense hostility that she became frightened. During the taking of Mr. Molloy's deposition Ms. Gentile asked a male colleague to remain in the room with her. At one point, she said, the officer fixed his gaze on the colleague and began imitating the character played by Robert DeNiro in the movie ''Taxi Driver.''''He was saying, 'Are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me?' '' Ms. Gentile recalled during a conversation this week. ''He was very intimidating. We spent two days in depositions and it was scary.''Mr. Molloy's background at that point clearly indicated that he was a walking problem unit. A few years earlier he had fired his weapon during an off-duty confrontation with Fordham University students outside a bar in the Bronx. The officer said the shooting was ''accidental.''He had appeared at least twice before the Civilian Complaint Review Board and had been the subject of numerous command disciplines. He was known as a cop with a hair-trigger temper and, according to his own testimony, he had been hurt many times on the job, suffering facial fractures, several deep cuts that required stitches to close, and back and head injuries.''They should have taken his gun away from him,'' said Ms. Gentile. ''I told the corporation counsel, 'This guy is going to kill somebody someday.' ''It took only two years for Ms. Gentile to be proved right. On March 3, 1993, Officer Molloy shot and killed an ex-convict named Granson Santamaria. Mr. Molloy said he thought Mr. Santamaria was reaching for a gun. There was no gun. The case received virtually no publicity and no action was taken against Officer Molloy.Six months later Officer Molloy fired four shots from his patrol car at a 20-year-old man named Paul Lipsey. One of the bullets pierced Mr. Lipsey's jacket but he was not hit. Mr. Lipsey had a gun but a judge would later indicate that he did not believe he had threatened Officer Molloy or his partner with it.Supreme Court Justice Joseph Fisch sentenced Mr. Lipsey to a year in prison for illegal possession of a gun. But in handing down the sentence he said that he thought the actions of Officer Molloy during the encounter with Mr. Lipsey ''were offensive and shocking.'' And he said of Officer Molloy and his partner: ''I found the testimony of the police officers incredible. And that is something that offended the dignity and the integrity of this court, when they testified in a less than forthright manner.''What apparently happened is that Mr. Lipsey -- who had not been in trouble before that incident and has had a clean record since -- was carrying the weapon for protection. He had previously been mugged twice. When he saw the police officers he became frightened and tossed the gun away. He was fired at anyway. The officers alleged that he had tried to kill them. Attempted murder charges were filed against Mr. Lipsey but they were thrown out.Richard Molloy's career can be summed up as one absurd and dangerous encounter after another. He was charged with murder in the death of Mr. Phelan, but that indictment has been dismissed. An appeal of the dismissal will be argued next Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mr. Molloy remains on modified duty, without his badge or gun. But what happens if he is finally cleared of any wrongdoing in the Phelan case? Will his badge and gun be given back to him? And if so, how long will it be before his next potentially fatal encounter?

WHO IS PAUL LIPSEY III??? HERE IS PART OF MY STORY...Youths Criticize Media On Coverage of ChildrenBy DENNIS HEVESIPublished: Monday, November 19, 1990

Citing headline words like "wolf pack," "hoodlums" and "thugs," about 1,000 young people berated a panel of newspaper and television representatives on Saturday for what the youths said was negative coverage of children."Why is it like a holiday when you write something positive about kids?" asked 16-year-old Malika Batchie after stepping up to the microphone in the auditorium of Martin Luther King Jr. High School on the West Side of Manhattan. "Why can't you do it all the time?" Ms. Batchie, a senior at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, wanted to know.To the shouts and prolonged applause of the crowd, another young woman, who declined to be identified, told the panel: "We don't want you to just come around here and pacify us. You live like vultures off the oppression of black people. Put that in your paper!" At least 75 percent of the audience was black or Hispanic.Panel members did not necessarily disagree. Paula Walker, an assistant news director at WNBC-TV, recounted how "a writer at my station, writing about the second Central Park jogger trial, used the phrase, 'savage attack,' when not long before that the second Bensonhurst trial was called 'a racial-murder trial.' " 'A Youth Empowerment Group'The occasion was a "Bust the Stereotypes Speakout" that followed a daylong program of workshops and caucuses on children's issues sponsored by Youth Force, a group created by the Citizens Committee for New York City, a nonprofit advocacy agency."It's a youth empowerment group," said Fitzcarl Reid, 19, a volunteer at Youth Force. "The full conference was designed to give young people the motivation and resources to go home and start organizing to improve their homes, neighborhoods and schools."The gathering was the third annual conference held by Youth Force. "Last year," Mr. Reid said, "young people who attended the caucuses decided to form their own congress, so that they could stay together. One of the first things they thought was pertinent was how youth are portrayed in the media. They called their group Youth Uprising."And that is what the panel members may have thought they were confronting as soon as the program started, the lights dimmed and a slide show began flashing headlines like "Where Did the Rotten Kids Get Their Values?" and "Teens Armed and Dangerous," interspersed with a set of "challenges" to news organizations. More Positive StoriesBefore the conference, Bonin Bough, 12, a member of Youth Uprising, recited some of the challenges, which included creating youth columns in major newspapers, financing literacy campaigns and student journalism programs in poor neighborhoods and making "at least 20 percent of the editorial boards, anchor people, production crews and administrative staff people of color by 1992."To the demands that more positive stories about young people be aired, Henry Florsheim, assistant news director of WABC-TV, said that some of those complaining were only seeing their own interests. "There is a sense," Mr. Florsheim said, "that if my particular project is not covered, then there are no positive stories.""How come the K.K.K. is not being called a wolf pack?" asked Paul Lipsey, 17, a junior at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx.Michel Marriott, an education reporter for The New York Times, agreed. "When armed suspects are kids of color, it is open season to use terms like 'wolf pack,' " he said.But when the questioning became particularly heated and pointed, Mr. Marriott countered, "I have fire in my stomach, too. There are a lot of people in this business because they want to be agents of change. Instead of throwing stones at the wall, try rearranging the bricks."

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Youths Criticize Media On Coverage of ChildrenBy DENNIS HEVESIPublished: Monday, November 19, 1990·Top of Form 1Bottom of Form 1Citing headline words like "wolf pack," "hoodlums" and "thugs," about 1,000 young people berated a panel of newspaper and television representatives on Saturday for what the youths said was negative coverage of children."Why is it like a holiday when you write something positive about kids?" asked 16-year-old Malika Batchie after stepping up to the microphone in the auditorium of Martin Luther King Jr. High School on the West Side of Manhattan. "Why can't you do it all the time?" Ms. Batchie, a senior at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, wanted to know.To the shouts and prolonged applause of the crowd, another young woman, who declined to be identified, told the panel: "We don't want you to just come around here and pacify us. You live like vultures off the oppression of black people. Put that in your paper!" At least 75 percent of the audience was black or Hispanic.Panel members did not necessarily disagree. Paula Walker, an assistant news director at WNBC-TV, recounted how "a writer at my station, writing about the second Central Park jogger trial, used the phrase, 'savage attack,' when not long before that the second Bensonhurst trial was called 'a racial-murder trial.' " 'A Youth Empowerment Group'The occasion was a "Bust the Stereotypes Speakout" that followed a daylong program of workshops and caucuses on children's issues sponsored by Youth Force, a group created by the Citizens Committee for New York City, a nonprofit advocacy agency."It's a youth empowerment group," said Fitzcarl Reid, 19, a volunteer at Youth Force. "The full conference was designed to give young people the motivation and resources to go home and start organizing to improve their homes, neighborhoods and schools."The gathering was the third annual conference held by Youth Force. "Last year," Mr. Reid said, "young people who attended the caucuses decided to form their own congress, so that they could stay together. One of the first things they thought was pertinent was how youth are portrayed in the media. They called their group Youth Uprising."And that is what the panel members may have thought they were confronting as soon as the program started, the lights dimmed and a slide show began flashing headlines like "Where Did the Rotten Kids Get Their Values?" and "Teens Armed and Dangerous," interspersed with a set of "challenges" to news organizations. More Positive StoriesBefore the conference, Bonin Bough, 12, a member of Youth Uprising, recited some of the challenges, which included creating youth columns in major newspapers, financing literacy campaigns and student journalism programs in poor neighborhoods and making "at least 20 percent of the editorial boards, anchor people, production crews and administrative staff people of color by 1992."To the demands that more positive stories about young people be aired, Henry Florsheim, assistant news director of WABC-TV, said that some of those complaining were only seeing their own interests. "There is a sense," Mr. Florsheim said, "that if my particular project is not covered, then there are no positive stories.""How come the K.K.K. is not being called a wolf pack?" asked Paul Lipsey, 17, a junior at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx.Michel Marriott, an education reporter for The New York Times, agreed. "When armed suspects are kids of color, it is open season to use terms like 'wolf pack,' " he said.But when the questioning became particularly heated and pointed, Mr. Marriott countered, "I have fire in my stomach, too. There are a lot of people in this business because they want to be agents of change. Instead of throwing stones at the wall, try rearranging the bricks."

In America; Time Bomb in BlueBy BOB HERBERTPublished: Thursday, September 18, 1997Laura Gentile warned a city lawyer in 1991 that Richard Molloy, a young police officer who was both hot-tempered and weird, would end up killing someone.Mr. Molloy was the officer whose gun was used one night in January 1996 to kill a drunken man named Patrick Heslin Phelan. The gun was slipped into Officer Molloy's pocket after the shooting and the medical examiner ruled that the wound to Mr. Phelan's head could not have been self-inflicted. Mr. Molloy has nevertheless insisted that Mr. Phelan committed suicide.Ms. Gentile is a lawyer who, in 1991, represented an Act Up demonstrator who sued Officer Molloy for false arrest. She described the officer's behavior during official proceedings in that case as bizarre. She said he acted so aggressively and exhibited such intense hostility that she became frightened. During the taking of Mr. Molloy's deposition Ms. Gentile asked a male colleague to remain in the room with her. At one point, she said, the officer fixed his gaze on the colleague and began imitating the character played by Robert DeNiro in the movie ''Taxi Driver.''''He was saying, 'Are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me?' '' Ms. Gentile recalled during a conversation this week. ''He was very intimidating. We spent two days in depositions and it was scary.''Mr. Molloy's background at that point clearly indicated that he was a walking problem unit. A few years earlier he had fired his weapon during an off-duty confrontation with Fordham University students outside a bar in the Bronx. The officer said the shooting was ''accidental.''He had appeared at least twice before the Civilian Complaint Review Board and had been the subject of numerous command disciplines. He was known as a cop with a hair-trigger temper and, according to his own testimony, he had been hurt many times on the job, suffering facial fractures, several deep cuts that required stitches to close, and back and head injuries.''They should have taken his gun away from him,'' said Ms. Gentile. ''I told the corporation counsel, 'This guy is going to kill somebody someday.' ''It took only two years for Ms. Gentile to be proved right. On March 3, 1993, Officer Molloy shot and killed an ex-convict named Granson Santamaria. Mr. Molloy said he thought Mr. Santamaria was reaching for a gun. There was no gun. The case received virtually no publicity and no action was taken against Officer Molloy.Six months later Officer Molloy fired four shots from his patrol car at a 20-year-old man named Paul Lipsey. One of the bullets pierced Mr. Lipsey's jacket but he was not hit. Mr. Lipsey had a gun but a judge would later indicate that he did not believe he had threatened Officer Molloy or his partner with it.Supreme Court Justice Joseph Fisch sentenced Mr. Lipsey to a year in prison for illegal possession of a gun. But in handing down the sentence he said that he thought the actions of Officer Molloy during the encounter with Mr. Lipsey ''were offensive and shocking.'' And he said of Officer Molloy and his partner: ''I found the testimony of the police officers incredible. And that is something that offended the dignity and the integrity of this court, when they testified in a less than forthright manner.''What apparently happened is that Mr. Lipsey -- who had not been in trouble before that incident and has had a clean record since -- was carrying the weapon for protection. He had previously been mugged twice. When he saw the police officers he became frightened and tossed the gun away. He was fired at anyway. The officers alleged that he had tried to kill them. Attempted murder charges were filed against Mr. Lipsey but they were thrown out.Richard Molloy's career can be summed up as one absurd and dangerous encounter after another. He was charged with murder in the death of Mr. Phelan, but that indictment has been dismissed. An appeal of the dismissal will be argued next Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mr. Molloy remains on modified duty, without his badge or gun. But what happens if he is finally cleared of any wrongdoing in the Phelan case? Will his badge and gun be given back to him? And if so, how long will it be before his next potentially fatal encounter?